Laura's Year in Asia = Fun Stories

I would write about Jaipur, the first city in Rajastan that we traveled to, but it was pretty boring. Did some cultural-stuff, saw some Raj palaces, wandered the old town, got lost in a 12th century fort...etc. But the highlight of Jaipur was going to our first Bollywood movie.

Jaipur has built this new theatre that is described as the place in India to go see a Hindi movie. Its big, its pink, looks like a giant pink twinkie, and sells popcorn for 20rs. The Raj Mandir was the perfect setting for our Bollywood introduction. We picked the 6:30 movie that turned out to be the 'action adventure' DON not really knowing what we were getting ourselves into, we could only wait as the theatre filled up with 500+ of India's middle and upper class.

I don't want to ruin the movie for you - because if you have the chance to go to Surrey and watch it DO! - but here's a brief rundown of what was the most entertaining 3 hours of my life. First the dialogue was mostly in Hindi and some catch phrases like "life ain't pretty" in english. The plot was kinda James Bond + The Matrix + Law and Order + Young and the Restless. I didn't fully understand the plot, and I doubt I would have even if it was all in English, there were so many twists and turns and secret twin brothers, ninja trained girls, stealth helicopters, and DANCE NUMBERS! The acting was atrocious but I fell in love with my first Indian man, who was a random character who never really fit in. We decided that all the georgus Indian men are in Bollywood movies, leaving all the creppy pervy ones to sit on the sides of the street to stare at us. The best part of any Bollywood movie is the singing/dancing numbers - and DON did not dissapoint. There were the,

"I'm in a club wearing a sequin dress"-number

"At a Hindu Ganesh festival in Mumbai"-number.

"Dancing in the shallow water at the beach so my sari gets wet"-number.

"I'm drunk off homemade booze and want some masala tobacco but my girlfriend wont let me"-number.

And my personal favourite, "We came home from the club together and I want in your pants so I'm going to dance around your apartment and do aerobics on your bed poles"-number.

The movie was basically a bunch of good vs. bad fighting scenes, including a fight on an airplane between Don (or his secret twin?) and a random white guy with a ponytail, but this fight spilled out of the plane and continued as they fought while holding onto a parachute backpack with two fingers freefalling. So realistic I couldn't handle the suspense.

Now we're in Pushkar, enjoying the hippie-traveller-meets-hindu-holy place vibe this place has going on. I've started wearing my kermit-green hippie pants and getting my hair oiled. But don't worry, I'm drawing the line at rainbow cotton shirts. We missed the famous Camel Fair (and exorbant prices that go with it) by a week, so we'll have to get our Camel fill in Jalismir. We went to a ladies house to get our feet heena'd, and went through a good-karma Hindu cerimony at the lake to recieve our "Pushkar passport" of a red ribbon around our wrists. The priests who were lucky enough to get us down to the lake were something else, they led us through hindu chants, cleansed our bodies with the lake water, and proceeded to bring good karma to all our friends and family. (ya'll are lucky i'm here!) But at least Justina's priest looked the part, mine was wearing ray-ban sunglasses and a neon yellow shirt. And he seemed more worried about my 'husbands' name than any other of my family members ;) We also ate some great falafels on the roadside (always loving the food!!!)Now we're off to get a head massage by a guy whose father once gave Queen Elizabeth a head massage when she was in India...ya I'm excited.

(check out Justina's blog for Jaipur pics....)